Reginald

Well, IMHO I’d disagree with this. In my personal experience, doing 4 way with the same people taught me much more about 4 way and allowed for a much steeper learning curve than when other people were introduced. In fact my basic recommendation, from personal experience, is that if you want to get good at 4 way get on a team (even a rookie team) and jump over and over with the same people. Of course you need proper coaching too. Opinions vary.... "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Remind your teacher that to prove that 2 items of different weights fall at the same rate IN A VACUME one one of the moon missions they droped a feather and a hammer and they landed at the same time. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

300 jumps in one year last year. I'm targeting 400 this year. Which is 10 jumps a week with weather weekends factored in... "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I see this sort of statement a lot, and every time I see it all I can think is... Are there really that many people out there with no common sense??? (And if there are, it seems like they shouldn't be jumping out of an airplane in the first place!) Ah, but see that's the problem. The lack of common sense creates a situation where they don't know they shouldn’t be doing something. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I appreciate your position, however, it would lend credence to your stand if you would argue your reasons cogently instead of just stating your position. Would you care to detail your reasoning? "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

1 First night jump. 2 New DZ 3 Higher altitude than home DZ 4 Fairly highly Loaded Canopy relative to experience (consider interaction with #3) Hmm, looks like links in a chain. How many jumps do you have at a DZ that is that much higher in elevation? How does your canopy perform at higher elevations? It's your choice but I would highly suggest doing several jumps that day at the DZ you are taking about at minimum if you do this at all. I had the option of doing my first night jump at Elisnore, where I had about 10 jumps, which has a huge landing area, but is about 1,000 feet higher than my home DZ. I decided not to even though I was being encouraged to join in the fun. I decided my home DZ that I knew intimately would be a safer choice. So I waited a number of months. I’m glad I did. That first night jump was almost like doing AFF 1 again in terms of nerves and being in an unusual environment. It was comforting to know the landing area and proper patterns, and the other people in the air with me. Be safe. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I’ll throw in my 2 cents. I’ve seen a lot of very low timers, including students, give technical advice on skydiving. Much of this advice is just plain wrong, and the newbies don’t know enough to know it’s wrong. Although we all should filter what we read, and understand the source of the info and that source’s credibility, unfortunately that’s not always the case. Other people might not know it’s incorrect advice and take it. Thus low timers giving technical advice, particularly to other students, is generally a bad idea. At 350 jumps and a USPA and SDU coaches rating, I’m uncomfortable giving technical advice on DZ.com except in some very limited areas. I encourage low timers, especially, students to give encouragement to other students and feedback to higher jump number skydivers (including instructors) about what type or method of instruction or advice worked for them. It helps me, for one, relate better to students and low(er) timers in the future. The vast majority of my posts are encouragement to other skydivers and relating my own experiences. For example, I’m willing to talk about my experience with a cutaway using a skyhook, because I’ve been there. I’m not comfortable talking about how to install a skyhook because I know squat about rigging. Anyone wanting the respect of others on this board should try and earn that respect by understanding what they can, in a meaningful way, contribute and what they should shy away from. The fastest way to loose respect on this board is to make it clear that one does not know what they are talking about. Healthy debate and discussion is a good thing and we ALL can contribute and learn from each other regardless of jump numbers, but it is also a courtesy to keep our input to things we have some expertise in. That may be how we overcame the fear of being a student, our rigging prowess, our experiences on downsizing, or whatever is appropriate. Krisanne, I think you brought up a great point of discussion here and I believe we can all learn something from it. I hope your adventures in skydiving are as rewarding as mine are!

The difference between a flat track and a delta is not arm position. A Delta is a dive whereas a flat track is… um flat. Arms being at a 45 have nothing to do with whether or not you are diving. You can do a good flat track with your arms at a 45 for stability. Also, I would not suggest looking straight down to determine if you are on heading or not. Looking down is very deceiving, you could be all over the place and it might appear to be reasonably on heading; the higher you are the less reliable looking down is. The horizon is a better gauge of weather or not you are on heading because it works equally as well at any altitude and small changes are perceptible. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

How close are you brining your arms in to your side and how close together are you brining your legs in together? Many students try to emulate a track they’ve seen from a person with thousands of jumps where arms and legs are together and the body is as sleek as a bullet. This is a very efficient track but also very unstable. Of course ask your instructors first, but it helps many students to keep their arms out to their sides at about a 45 for stability and control. It won’t be quite as fast of a track but a tad slower and on heading is better than fast and in circles! The issue you are facing is a very common one at your level. Don’t sweat it. I know guys with thousands of jumps that continue to work on their track every time they jump. It’s one of the harder skills to learn and one that you will work on your entire skydiving career. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Sweet talking, man that's just wrong! No, the cat contest is the way to her heart. Just VOTE! "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Please help! Okay, I’ll be honest I’m trying to get a girl in bed. My angle is that I’m trying to help her win a cat photo contest. Oh, sure when you see the cat you will realize it is tortured and miserable but hey the woman is hot as hell and sweet as can be (to humans). Please help me. It will only take a second of your time and may help me get lucky! Go to http://www.thecatconnection.com/contest/contestants.shtml then click a radio button for Sophie. You have to go down to the bottom of the voting area and click “vote” to finalize your vote. They have a system that will allow only 1 vote per computer. Please help me get lucky! "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Any particular incident you want to share that started this conversation....please.... "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Your wallet! Seriously, I found I was sore as hell the first time I went to the tunnel (as a newbie skydiver) but on every subsequent trip I had nothing more than the general aches and pains I have after a long weekend of skydiving. That said if you are not already doing a good general stretching regime you should start. It will help keep the aches and pains to a minimum and also improve your performance in the air. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Ron's new tag line, "Jesus Christ could appear and tell them to upsize they'd figure "well, Jesus doesn't swoop anyway, so he wouldn't understand my skills." -BillV LOL, Oh sh*t it's true. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I always do the following: Plan A: Can make it back to the DZ? If not I go to Plan B: I look for a good safe out headed back to the DZ. If there are none I go to Plan C: where is a good safe landing area regardless of direction? I jump in Dallas and there are no shortage of good outs around the DZ so I rarely get to plan C, but jumping at other DZ around the country it is an important part of my thought process in the air. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Why'd you jump if the spots were so bad? Couldn't you smack the pilot around a little? I'm not trying to be a prick, just curious. Why would you smack the pilot around, you are the one that got out of the airplane. I bet he made it back. Sparky LOL

What specifically do you mean by "profit margin"? Is that Gross Margin, Earnings Before Tax, Net Income? Given what little I know about the costs of running a tunnel I presume it is Gross margin which means there are still very large additional costs such as interest, SG&A, etc. that will bring that number down substantially. Or are you telling me that is ETB, or NI? In which case it is a printing press. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

First, I hope you recover soon. Hard openings scare the hell out of me. Based on your comments above you have had varying degrees of hard openings on all 10 of your openings on this new canopy. Have you packed it yourself at all? Have you talked to your packer about the hard openings? Do you understand how he is packing and have you asked him to change how he is packing? It could be body position but given your comments about all the opening being harder than you would like I suspect it is either a packing issues or possible an issue with the canopy itself. Are the lines properly trimmed, is the slider properly sized for the canopy? I would not jump it again until you’ve got competent advice on all of the above and more. Get well. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Okay, I don’t have a story of my own but I’ve seen the video of a guy that got his foot caught in a looped seat belt on exit and was dangling outside the door. Someone inside the plane pulled out a hook knife and cut the seatbelt. Anyone remember that one and have the link? I carry 2 hook knives and I doubt I would ever use one under canopy, my best guess is on the plane or maybe on the ground after landing. However, I’d feel better having them and not needing them than the alternative. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Yea, we get it in Dallas next weekend. i jumped it last year. I was scared on the ride up until we got to about 1,000. It was only then I knew I would survive the trip down. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I spent 2 hours in the tunnel in Perris this past weekend with the torrential rains California had. In all but 2 sessions even though it was raining lightly outside I never got wet. However, in those 2 where it was pouring down the front of my jumpsuit got pretty wet. I wore a full face and a thin neck warmer (it was 50 degrees) and never noticed that I was getting wet until I got out of the chamber. It just was not a problem. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

A HIGHLY experienced instructor told me that if he every had a skydiver at his DZ burn in and he walked up to their body and they had not pulled ALL of their handles that he would piss on their dead body and walk away. At first I thought this was bizarrely harsh coming from such a mild mannered guy but the more I thought about it the more I understood what he was saying. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I’ve found it improves the subtleties of my body position, which are difficult to do in free fall. I just did 1:45 minutes of tunnel time this weekend and watching the tapes last night was impressed at how much better my body position was from the fist session to the last. My center points were actual center points, my mantis looked like a mantis, etc. The tunnel give you time to focus on these things and get good video of them, where it’s much more difficult in the air. Hell, in the air it’s hard enough to get a good point of reference let alone a good camera view of it; actually that is the best part of the tunnel IMHO, you get perfect points of reference for every little motion. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Good question. And the answer is, “It depends!” On a relatively small dive like a 10 or 20 way the answer is different than a 357 way. One of my instructors that was on the 357 way told me that she was prepared to track down to 1,000 feet and go directly to silver if necessary to get clear air. There are no circumstances in which I can think of that this makes sense on a 20 way, if anyone gets in this position on a “smaller” jump they need to think about bowling. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Dallas has a Super Otter and a Grand Caravan. I have no idea about the engine specs, but I believe the Caravan has an upgraded motor (but I really am just guessing). They run 20 minute turnarounds, reliably. I know I’m on them every weekend. ;-) The Caravan is a nice plan although I really prefer the larger door of the Otter for 4-way practice. ;-) "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP